Cable operators have widely deployed high-speed data services on cable television systems. These data services allow subscriber-side devices, such as personal computers, to communicate over an ordinary cable TV network Hybrid Fiber Coax (HFC) cable. A Cable Modem Termination System (CMTS) connects the cable TV network to a data network, such as the Internet. The Data Over Cable Service Interface Specification (DOCSIS) is one of the cable modem standards used for transferring data over the cable TV network.
The subscriber-side devices located behind the cable modems can be used to generate Denial of Service (DoS) attacks or other undesired packets that consume processing resources of the cable TV network. Partial solutions to this malicious traffic require the cable modem associated with the malicious traffic to support Upstream Transmitter Disable (UP-DIS) functionality. Partially because cable modems are sometimes hacked to disable UP-DIS functionality, and partially because these and other systems are not highly scalable, malicious traffic from the subscriber networks is still problematic. The disclosure that follows solves this and other problems.